Building Your Freelance Writing Business

Building a freelance writing business takes time, effort and perseverance. After you have built your business portfolio, the work begins. There is a fine balance between promoting yourself and becoming a nuisance in social situations. Be guided by the level of interest when you meet someone for the first time and they ask about your freelancing, if it is a casual question then do not proceed with your ‘sales pitch’ but alternatively be prepared to produce your business card and the method they prefer for follow up. Make a note of their name, business and contact details (get their business card if possible) and confirm the date.  The same procedure works for virtual connections – always confirm the date for follow up and make a calendar note.

Remembering these tips will also help you build a solid freelance business.

a. Ensure you are giving a professional service to your clients. Notify them of any changes to deadline, queries on the content and maintain communication throughout the project.
b. Spend time marketing your business – use social media, attend business events and always keep business cards with you. A chance conversation can lead to a lucrative project.
c. Keep your work space organized with each project clearly labeled and a calendar showing deadline dates for each.
d. Review past successful projects and use those same strategies to gain new ones. Investigate why something did not work and learn from them.
e. Learn from market leaders – reading blogs and articles and having direct contact with successful freelancers will allow you to improve your business tactics.
f. Networking is vital to your business so make sure you spend time building your business platform and always reply promptly to queries.
g. Take time to consider each project – is the deadline feasible, do you have the proper expertise for the content; will you manage multiple projects at one time?
h. If you are asked to ‘work for free’ seriously consider the pros and cons. Will the exposure be worthwhile to your business?

What tips can you share?

 

Technology Crash – The Affect on Freelance Business

The service interruption on Facebook & Instagram this week caused consternation throughout the global. As a social experiment, however, it was very enlightening! Many people felt entirely lost and many panicked. It showed the addiction level of many to this online ‘reality’ but for many freelancers it impacted on their business.

Our availability to clients worldwide is only made possible by way of technology – our profiles, business links and communication depend upon it. Even email is a virtual communication – can you imagine conversing through regular mail with a client? Even if that client was only several miles away, rather than in another country, it would be a painfully slow communication of ideas, revisions, billing and payment. Telephone conversations would be long and prone to misinterpretation rather than a Skype call, where we can ‘show’ a concept or share documents to edit and revise on Zoom or other such options. Clients living in other parts of the country would never find us. Our commercial reach would be seriously curtailed.

We have, at our fingertips, access to many forms of connection not only Facebook, but LinkedIn, Alignable, Instagram, PayPal, and email etc. These methods enable us to relay almost immediately a response, an invoice, a payment and much more.

The crash made us all realize our dependency on virtual communication and maybe it will raise questions of ‘what if?’ for the future. We are so used to the freedom and ease of accessibility that when we do not have it – our ‘world’ collapses.  Luckily, the crash did not last long and everything was ‘back to normal’ quite quickly.

However, it poses the questions:

Could your freelance business survive without it?

Do we continue ‘saving’ everything virtually or do we make ‘hard’ copies just in case?

How would you promote your business if technology was not available?

I would be interested to hear your views on this.